exploding tires

Often times we get inquiries about "what it's like to be in a touring band". We answer quickly with all the fun stories including all the near misses and funny encounters.

Maybe it's a story about Thomas sleep walking in our New York hotel and waking up in the elevator, Chris getting lost and disappearing for hours in nearly every city while talking on his cell phone in the wee hours of the morning, Tyler and Woody fighting in the parking lot of a pre-festival party...

This weekend however, we had one of those "DEAR GOD, WHAT JUST HAPPENED...I THINK WE ALMOST DIED" moments, TWICE.

We were in route to Charleston, South Carolina when our rear right tire decided to blow out. Here is what it looked like.

As you can see, it was pretty gnarly...but it wasn't that bad...it just sounded rough...
so we slowly drove to the next exit (it was only about a quarter mile) and began to change the tire. Now for those of you readers up in the northern half of the US or located elsewhere...South Carolina in the summer gets pretty sticky and HOT!
So there we are in the middle of a truck stop, changing a tire...and having serious troubles with our stupid jack. Finally we got it changed (with a little help from a super cool truck driver, who by the way "used to tour with Black Oak Arkansas" or something like that) and we headed back on the road...thanking God for our safety.

We started watching the rest of the episode of Arrested Development that we were watching...driving pretty smoothly for the next hour or so...we were running late but decided we'd call the venue when our load in time came and gone and we would gage how far we were from the venue.

Then out of nowhere "KABOOM"...I began to lose control of the van (which was located in the "fast lane" of the interstate and going about 85). I tried to apply the brakes...nothing...
I got us safely to the shoulder somehow (guardian angels) and there it was on the right side, waiting for me as we exited the van. That's Chris's hand in the way, but you get the idea...no more spare tire.
Long story short, we had to cancel the Charleston show b/c it took almost 2 hours for the tow truck to come and when we got to the next town (coincidentally Columbia, SC where are next night's show was) it was too late to get to Charleston.

We came out of it safe and alive and for that we were so thankful, and ended up having an incredible show in Columbia and met a bunch of new friends.
We will be back in Charleston and Columbia on July 9th and July 11th...can't wait...we just hope these new tires hold up :)
So boys and girls and everyone that wonders what it's like to be a rock n' roll band on tour before the days of stadiums and buses...please read this blog and spread the word...sometimes it's just down right dangerous, of course none of us would change it for a second.

=w=